Been A Long Day
by SilverWolf7
Summary: Aziraphale stays at Crowley's for the night before the trials. Crowley is very relieved about that. It had been the worst day, after all.


My first Good Omens story in years. And it's the TV show focused now, not book. This little one-shot take place between the bus ride back to London and the trials the next day.

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Been A Long Day

The hand holding his on the bus ride home was the one thing keeping him together now that things were beginning to calm down.

The world was saved, the Anti-Christ had stopped the Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen were defeated for the time being. He was utterly exhausted and wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball in his bed and sleep for at least a week.

This day, what was supposed to be the last day, was possibly the worst day of his life up to and including Falling. The thought of having to go through yet another thing going wrong was making him want to go back to his snake form, find some dark hole somewhere and stay there for a century or two. He couldn't take anything else bad happening.

Aziraphale, obviously knowing him well enough by now to know he was very silently and as stoically as possible freaking the fuck out, gave the hand he was holding a gentle squeeze.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He squeezed back. He'd be fine once he got round to figuring out what had happened. Parts of what had happened were already making no sense to his muddled mind.

"You know, we have to talk about that last prophecy and when the best time to switch would be?" Aziraphale stated, looking at him from the corner of his eye.

Crowley rolled his eyes in return and nodded. "Of course I know that, Angel. Can we just get back to mine first?"

Aziraphale slowly nodded his head. "Yes, yes of course. Oh, I do hope it's not too late by then."

That sentence made him squeeze Aziraphale's hand slightly more tighter than he probably should, but sentences like that weren't allowed to be uttered. Not on a bus at any rate. That needed lots of alcohol and possibly a slight emotional breakdown.

It seemed the angel got the hint, because he patted his hand and gave him a sad little smile of understanding. After that, they didn't say another word until they were back in his flat. His flat with its one used bedroom and a plenitude of barely used rooms with hardly anything in them.

Also, there was a stain on the floor from where Ligur had melted. He stopped and froze on the spot when he noticed that. He had almost forgotten about the attack on him earlier that day. It had been overtaken by Aziraphale's death.

He could barely remember the taxi ride home. He really needed to get his head in the game.

Aziraphale was here for the night and he had no idea what he was supposed to be thinking about that. They had stayed at the same town or city for a lot of time throughout history, but never in the same building. He hadn't even had a short little kip over at the bookshop before.

Now...well, now they not only were in his home, they were going to share a room. A bed. That is if the angel decided to finally try sleep. It was one of the simple human pleasures he'd been trying to tempt the angel in to for centuries now. Aziraphale had gone more for gluttony than sloth.

He suddenly wanted nothing more than to hold Aziraphale close and never let go.

A hand touched his shoulder and he jumped at the sudden contact. The hand disappeared just as suddenly as it appeared.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Dear. You just look quite spooked about something."

Taking a deep breath, Crowley turned to glare at the angel through his glasses. "I'm currently looking at the stain of what's left of Ligur. That holy water you gave me in the Seventies. I told you it was for insurance. I wasn't lying."

Aziraphale looked down at the floor and shuddered. "I am glad you didn't want to use it on yourself. I did worry about that, you know?"

Sighing Crowley nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I know you worry." He looked at Aziraphale for a few seconds, before turning his gaze back to the floor. "I thought you were dead. Hastur and Ligur said they would go after you too, as they heard you saying something about the Anti-Christ over the phone. Hastur survived and his specialty is fire. I thought..."

He heard Aziraphale gasp by his side. The hand was back on his shoulder, this time staying there and giving a comforting squeeze.

"You thought it was Hellfire?" the angel whispered near his ear.

He nodded. "Yeah. The bookshop was burning and the firemen couldn't put it out with their hoses. Things exploded when nothing should have been inside to explode. So, I thought..."

"You thought you had lost me for good. Oh, Crowley. I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere any time soon."

He shook his head. "Then the Bentley blew up and it was actually Hellfire and I don't even know if that can be fixed through the Apocalypse being stopped and whatever Adam did to fix it."

Arms wrapped around him and he felt small and sad and hidden from Hell right then. It was exactly what he needed. He was being touched by Aziraphale, in good way. A way that made him feel safe and secure and...

He burst into tears.

He really didn't mean to do that.

Aziraphale held him until his body gave out on him and the two of them ended up a pile of limbs on the floor. It took a few more minutes before he stopped with the waterworks though.

Now he was even more exhausted than he was before.

"My dear, you've gone quiet. Are you asleep?" he heard Aziraphale ask him quietly.

He grunted and slapped the hand holding him close. "No. Wanna be. I'm exhausted Angel. I don't think I can take one more thing happening, no matter if it's good or bad..."

"Hmm, is it a bad time for me to take you to bed then? You look like you're boneless right now."

He blinked more out of surprise than his eyes hurting from having been wet for too long. "You want to take me to bed?"

"To sleep, dear. Not any of that naughty business."

He huffed out what would have been a sharp bite of laughter if he had been up for anything more than lying down and sleeping. "You're actually going to sleep?"

Aziraphale chuckled and he could feel the angel shaking his head. "No, of course not! You know I don't sleep, Crowley. I will keep you company while you sleep. Just in case."

Crowley froze a little as that implication hit. He couldn't afford to sleep right now. Both of them were in danger by their old sides. Suddenly he was extremely glad that Aziraphale never slept. He could keep watch while he did. "Yeah... Good idea." The end of his sentence was punctuated by a yawn.

Why had he trained his body to sleep regularly?

Probably for the same reason Aziraphale had taught his to eat. And both of them to drink.

Speaking of the angel, one hand was put at his back to keep him sitting up while the other went below his knees and the next thing he knew he was lifted up and was being held in Aziraphale's arms. He let out an involuntary gasp at the sudden move and grabbed hold of the angel's shoulders.

"A little warning next time!" he hissed into Aziraphale's ear, before leaning his head against his shoulder, moving his arms to his back now he felt like he wasn't going to be dropped.

He could feel Aziraphale smiling. There was that smug feel he got when the angel smiled around him.

"So sorry, Dear. If this ever happens again, I will give you fair warning," Aziraphale replied and Crowley could hear the smug amusement in his voice. He grumbled but let the angel do whatever he wanted.

What the angel wanted was to carry him to his bed, like he was a damsel in distress. Okay, so maybe not damsel right this moment, but he would admit to the distress. He was definitely that.

The trek from his hallway to his bedroom wasn't a long one, and Aziraphale definitely knew where his bedroom was from all the times he had come barging in to wake him up for meals. Usually lunch. Sometimes dinner. This time was completely different. For one, Aziraphale wasn't barging in and he definitely wasn't waking him up. No, this was different because Aziraphale was taking him to bed.

This time he was held close by one strong but soft hand as Aziraphale pulled down the sheets.

"Which side do you want to sleep in, Dear?"Aziraphale asked and Crowley craned his head to see what had been done to his sheets.

He blinked. "Uh. I'll take the left. You stay near the door." He'd feel safer that way.

Aziraphale nodded at that. "That sounds good. Now, to get you in bed..."

And just like that, Aziraphale was putting him down on the bed on the left side, pulling the covers up and around him when he was in a comfy position, before walking to the right side and laying himself down.

He frowned, and took a second to reach down and take off his boots. "You don't sleep with footwear on..."

His feet were scaly, because he liked having scales. Humans didn't like seeing them on humans too much though, so he kept scales where they are covered. Aziraphale sighed at him and pushed his own off to the floor.

After a few awkward silent minutes, knowing Aziraphale wasn't going to sleep, he sighed loudly and wriggled his way closer to the angel. "You keep me safe. I'm going to use you for warmth."

He then went about laying his head on Aziraphale's chest, so he could hear the angel's heart beating. One arm wrapped around a soft tummy, another going up to a head of short curls. One leg sprawled across Aziraphale's hips, while the other twined between the two which obviously weren't his own.

It was oddly comfortable. He sighed and wriggled closer just to be closer and closed his eyes. Before consciousness left him and he was unaware of the world around him, he felt a hand in his hair and what felt like a light kiss on his forehead. That was followed by a light "Sleep well, Crowley."

He did. Surprisingly.

The sleep he got was surprisingly helpful. He usually enjoyed sleep to forget about the day and when he was feeling particularly lazy or bored. He had never felt true exhaustion before yesterday. And it was yesterday. The sun was shining outside the windows and he could feel it on his face. He was relaxed and warm and comfortable.

It wasn't until he was a little more awake that he noted the sun shouldn't be on his face. He was facing the opposite way towards the wall, not the window, when he went to bed. That wasn't unusual in itself. He tended to turn in his sleep.

What was unusual was to wake up with an arm wrapped around him. A nice, comfy plump arm that belonged to a certain angel that had promised he'd guard him while he slept. Along with the arm was a body. He could feel Aziraphale's belly at the small of his back. It felt nice. He yawned to alert Aziraphale he was awake.

"Ah, you are finally awake. You've been asleep for 10 hours."

He grunted. "Yeah. Shit, I want to sleep for the rest of forever if it means avoiding both Heaven and Hell..."

Aziraphale pinched his belly and he squirmed. He got the hint. "I won't. I'm just really not looking forward to this."

The angel sighed loudly behind hm. "No I'm not looking forward to it either. Speaking of, we really need to switch a soon as possible. Who knows when they will be coming for us?"

Sighing loudly himself, he shoved the arm around him off and turned around so he could look at the angel. "Wanna do it now? Saves time?"

Aziraphale smiled brightly at him. "Let's," the angel replied and held out the arm Crowley had recently shoved off him and he met it with his own. They held hands and concentrating on the other, managed to switch their looks.

It took a lot of concentration for him to make his eyes shift. It's just not natural to have round pupils. He felt like the lighting dimmed a lot when he finally got the eyes right. He grinned as Aziraphale winced and started to blink.

"My dear, do you know you see heat signatures as well as with normal vision?"

He blinked himself at that one. "Uh. No? Usually I go for one or the other, not both."

Aziraphale frowned, concentrated for a second, before smiling. "There, no more heat."

He grinned wickedly. "So, what do you want me to do with you?"

Rolling his eyes, Aziraphale frowned. "I don't know, really. Check what is left of the bookstore, or see if it is still standing after Adam fixed things, definitely. As to Heaven...just try to survive."

Crowley nodded at that. "Good advice that. Survive. You too in Hell. Oh! Also, try to humiliate Hastur while there? That'd be great."

Throwing back his head slightly, Aziraphale laughed. "You would suggest something so reckless."

Frowning, he shook his head. "No, really humiliate him. Hell will try to kill me. Which means holy water. Which means, it doesn't matter what you do, nothing will make things worse."

An arm wrapped around him and pulled him close. He never realised just how sharp his thin body was until he was being hugged by it. He shifted around with his now heavier body until the sharpness and softness found equal ground and they got comfortable.

He never wanted to leave the safety of Aziraphale's arms, even if right then they looked like his. Sighing, he let go of the angel and slowly sat up, before shifting over to the side of the bed so he could get out and stand up without having to disturb Aziraphale's position on the bed.

He straightened the bowtie he was now wearing, as he fussed with Aziraphale's preferred clothes. He knew how the angel moved, he'd be fine.

Watching as Aziraphale let out a sigh and got up himself, he then was gifted to the angel impersonating him. He was pretty good at it. Not perfect, but definitely good enough to trick Hell into believing he was definitely Crowley.

"Well then," he said, voice sounding just like Aziraphale's. "Let's get this done with shall we, dear boy?"

A big grin went across a face that looked like his own but wasn't. "Sure angel, let's do this."


End file.
